Kona Bike nutrition

So I know that everyone's nutritional intake is completely different, but I kind of changed things up prior to the launch in Hawaii this year.  For one, I knew that with temps in the 80's all day that I couldn't mix 2 x 750 calorie bottles and have them last 4+ hours.  They would be warm by the time I got to them and I decided it would probably be best to get cold nutrition at every aid station.

My nutrition on the bike was going to consist of Ironman Perform (available on course) and then Powerbar Strawberry Banana powergels and also Suceed Salt tabs.  I had two bottles on my bike of powdered Perform that I had mixed pre ride and I knew based on my training that I would be downing 2 bottles per hour, so that was going to be the first hour.

Here is my nutrition plan for JUST the bike (obviously I had more calories on the run) but I wanted to chart out after the fact my caloric intake and sodium consumption during the ride because hindsight is 20/20 and looking back on things, I probably took in too much sodium.

Turns out I had about 1700-1800mg of sodium each hour and about 500 calories.  I was a little top heavy in the calories early in the bike because you can do that in the heat, I was just cautious not to ride too hard and have my stomach shut down.

The recommended sodium intake is about 1,000mg per hour and I was WELL above that, but I didn't cramp, so I suppose that I had enough in me.  My tri shorts had white salt stains all over them so I was replacing what I was losing, but in hindsight it might have been too much. 

I suffered some GI issues and had to stop at a porto-potty along Ali'i Drive twice on the run course and as soon as I stopped taking in sodium (about 9 miles into the run - I'm apparently a slow learner) I felt fine and was able to continue without stopping every few miles. 

Good stuff to know for next time on the island (if I can make it back) but it just looks like I got shaken with everyone's talk about how hot it is and sweat rate, etc.  If you make it to Kona in the future, please let this be a lesson to you, plot out your sodium intake prior to the start of the race and refine it if necessary.  I probably would have dialed it back to between 1200mg-1500mg fo rrace day.  Lesson learned.

Be safe out there friends, train and race smartly.  Cheers.